The budget for the fall semester Casino Week was presented at the Oct. 5 Student Government meeting with many of the same expenses from last year’s event. The event is scheduled for Nov. 1 to Nov. 4 in the Student Union Building, and has a proposed budget of nearly $12,000. SG will vote on the projected budget at their next meeting on Oct 19.
Samantha Bickert, executive board treasurer who was in charge of the Casino Week budget, said that the main change was adding more gift card prizes. She decided to offer gift cards after she questioned 25 non-SG members on what prizes they would like to see.
“The one that I got the majority for was actually Wal-Mart, which kind of surprised me,” Bickert said. “But everyone wanted Wal-Mart gift cards and the second was Best Buy.”
There will be gift cards for other major stores like Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Wegman’s, but also cards for local shops that are not usually given out, such as for the Happy Little Hot Dog Company and Bart and Urby’s.
Commuter Council President Cortny Sasserson said she liked this idea to offer more gift card prizes.
“I like some of the new gift cards … I really like the Nike and NFL.com cards,” Sasserson said.
Bickert said that many of the prizes will remain the same as previous years. She said these familiar prizes, such as the television and the $1000 King of Prussia Mall gift card that were door prizes from last year’s event, will remain in the budget because of how popular they were with attendees.
“They’re definitely a hit,” Bickert said.
Even though the prizes will be generally the same, Bickert said they always try to invest in updated technology. A DualView digital camera and an iPad 2 are examples of newer models that Bickert said she would like to invest in.
“Whenever newer things come out, we try to incorporate that,” she said.
The theme this year will be winter wonderland. Bickert said she came up with this theme while brainstorming with friends on something that is different from previous years and cost-effective.
“I was just trying to think of something new but we would also spend money on the prizes and not necessarily the decorations,” Bickert said.
Bickert said they decided to retain the Casino Week format from last year instead of just having a Casino Night because there were too many activities packed into one event. Bingo will take place Tuesday, Nov. 1, horse racing will be on Thursday, Nov 2, Texas Hold ‘Em will be on Friday, Nov. 3 and Casino Night will be Saturday, Nov. 4.